NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - EASTERN WASH. VS KANSAS

March 20, 2021

Shantay Legans

Indiana Farmers Coliseum

Eastern Washington Eagles

Postgame Media Conference

Kansas 93, Eastern Washington 84

SHANTAY LEGANS: Got to be proud of my team. Love 'em to death. They played their hearts out. They got outplayed in the second half a little bit. But they played their hearts out. They played really hard.

You got to give all the credit to Kansas. They came out and offensive rebounded, made second-chance points, made some big shots. That's a big-time program. We went toe-to-toe with them. We played hard. I told my guys we don't believe in moral victories, but today at the end of the season this is a great moral victory for our team and our program, our city of Cheney, all our supporters.

I'm proud of our team. You guys should be proud, they gave everything they had tonight. They just couldn't get the win like we wanted to. We wanted to get that Cinderella story and keep going. Tonight we faced a team that was hungry. They got hungrier in the second half and did a great job rebounding.

Got to give all the guys on Kansas credit, but I love my team. They play with such fun. They played hard. They did everything I've asked. Couldn't be more proud of a basketball team.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. I'm just curious, for those unfamiliar with your basketball program, what did you think you showed the nation today about Eastern Washington basketball?

SHANTAY LEGANS: That we're a good team. We can battle with the best of them. We're a tough team. We shoot a lot of threes, but we're a tough team. We can go inside, we can go outside. We showed them it's a player's program. Our guys came out and played. We came up a little short, but you can't tell me we played against Kansas, and we shoot 58%, 38% from three, we only miss two free throws and we lose. If you would have gave me those numbers before the game, I'd say we won.

We showed that the Big Sky is no joke. We got some great coaches and great teams in our league, some great players. Whoever comes out of the league is always going to be very tough.

I love this team. We're a very good basketball team. We played really hard. We have a lot of fun doing it together as a team.

Q. What led to the jump in Tanner Groves' minutes and points per game from last season to this season?

SHANTAY LEGANS: He's good at basketball (laughter). I'm just kidding.

No, he worked his tail off. He's done everything we've asked him and more. Him and his brother, and our whole team, they get in there in the morning, they work out, they go hard, they come back and shoot in the afternoon. They really wanted it.

Tanner was one of those guys that we thought he was really good. Last year as a sophomore, he's playing behind the MVP of the league. It was hard to get a lot of guys minutes. We should have figured out how to get him more minutes last year.

He earned every minute, every second he played this year. Great teammate, great guy. Terrific player. I tell the guys all the time, if you're better than the guy ahead of you or you're the best player, you'll play. That's what we stuck by all year long. He's done great. That's what really got him propelled into where he was at. He started gaining confidence. When you start playing a lot more and the results come from the hard work you've put in, you start playing with a lot more confidence. It's a confidence game.

He felt comfortable. He's done everything at a high level. So you got to be very, very happy for Tanner and his family and his brother, because his brother also played really well. When you have those opportunities, you got to take them. He took his opportunity and we couldn't be more happier for a player.

Q. Going into this game, how were you going to be able to get Tanner loose for so many points? Was that essentially part of the game plan? You knew he could go inside and outside against these guys?

SHANTAY LEGANS: Yeah. I knew when they play with their big guys, they hard hedge or flat hedge, whatever you want to call it, we got different terms for it, but they snake the back side. We cut the guy through. We knew Tanner would get a lot of pops because he's a great shooter. We knew we'd get that.

Then when they came in and took one of the big guys out, we knew Tanner could take advantage inside against a smaller player. We've done it all year long, finding the mismatch. He had the mismatch all game.

I thought Tanner is one of the best big guys in the country. He can score with his back to the basket, he can shoot the three. We thought we had a mismatch. I know everyone was really excited to play this game. They tell you these guys are really good, post, post this. I thought Tanner had the advantage all game long. We went to him. He came up aces for us. Couldn't be happier.

He did everything we needed him to do tonight. He put everything on the line tonight. We came up at little short. We felt he had a mismatch, we felt we could get him some open shots and some open looks.

Q. What do you think it means to Tanner to represent Spokane on this stage and also let the world know it's not just Gonzaga in the Northwest that can hoop?

SHANTAY LEGANS: It means a lot. He's Spokane through and through. He put everything, like I said, on the line. We've been playing -- and Gonzaga has been good since I've been at Eastern. It's been one of those deals where you got a really good team, it's like having a pro team in your city. We just keep chugging along. We don't have any ego. We know they're a good team. It's fun to watch them play. We're rooting for them now. We need them to win the whole thing for all us Spokane guys. We'll be rooting for them.

It means a lot to Tanner to be able to play, represent himself and his family the way he has. Again, he's the MVP of the league, he's a great student, 4.0 student. It's huge for him. I think it's great for him to be able to represent his family, represent Spokane, because I know that's something that's dear to his heart. To be such a good guy, do everything the right way. He's a gentle giant until he gets in those courts, then we call him Psycho T. He's fun to be around, a great player.

Q. What did you see from KU's two guards in Dajuan Harris and Marcus Garrett?

SHANTAY LEGANS: They shot better than I thought. They made a lot of threes when it mattered.

We're going into the game saying we're going to protect the paint, even though we gave up 42 points in the paint. They hit some timely three-point shots. Backbreaking three-point shots. Marcus Garrett is probably one of the best defensive guards in the nation. Harris, No. 3, is also a very good defensive guard. They have two guys that can really hound you, bring the ball up, disrupt your offense. I thought they did a great job of doing that.

They made timely shots, shots that were huge. Obviously the offensive player, No. 30, I don't want to butcher his name, he's just a really, really good basketball player. You had three of those guys really working out.

When they were able to get downhill, when they were able to drive a closeout, they really put us in a bind. Again, they did a good job. Coach did an unbelievable job of putting his players in a place to be successful. That's something we'll pick up on and we'll come back stronger.

Q. The last few years has been difficult for your athletic department. What do you think this means to everybody at Eastern to have this game and get some national exposure on your program with so many questions that have been circulating?

SHANTAY LEGANS: Well, that we're a tough university. Everybody through and through is tough. It's a spot where you love going to work every day. It's a spot where you have to figure things out. At this time right now, obviously we're going through some tough times. Tough times only make tough people. I believe our university is going to be stronger for it.

We have great support from our Sixth Man Club all the way down to our boosters and our donors in the EAF. You got to be proud to be an Eastern Washington Eagle. I think people who go through this, Eastern Washington, they come out, proud of where they go to. We don't have this, we don't have that, but we have great people in our department, we got great coaches, we have great student-athletes.

It just is one of those places where you're going to have to be tough. You're going to have to make it work. I believe Eastern Washington deserves a lot of attention because it's a great university. We have great kids on our team. Not just our team, but our whole department. Having a whole athletic department over a 3.0 GPA. Having our football team be in the national championship. Our soccer team be great. It's just a great spot to be in. Just great student-athletes. In a small city, small town, like Eastern, or Cheney, you have to be proud to be from there. I think we got a bunch of guys that are proud to play for Eastern.

There are a lot of people that are proud they work at Eastern Washington. There's a lot of alumni that are proud of Eastern Washington, not just because we've done well, but because of the people they've become when they leave our university. It's just one of those spots that is special.

We got to cherish it and we got to do everything we can to protect it. You got to be happy for Eastern Washington.

Q. That stretch in the second half where they drew even, then moved past you guys. They went to McCormack pretty hard in the post. Anything else in that stretch you saw that hurt you guys?

SHANTAY LEGANS: Turnovers and offensive rebounds. I thought we did a good job on McCormack. He ended up going 9 of 15, getting 5 offensive rebounds. I think the offensive rebounds is where he really scored his points. He made a couple good jump hooks here and there. I think the offensive rebounds is really what hurt us.

A couple timely threes by No. 0 really hurt us. Just didn't have enough timeouts. We needed to call a couple more, but we didn't have enough. Again, we kind of ran out of a little bit of gas. I think our team played tough. I think they played hard. We played Tanner tonight 32 minutes. We had Michael Meadows play 36, Jacob Groves played 36.

I think towards the end of the game, towards that stretch, I could have maybe done a better job of getting a sub, getting a couple timeouts, trying to get to that media timeout a little bit.

For the most part we did a good job. They just hit some timely threes when we didn't need them to. They haven't been a great three-point shooting team all season long, but they were tonight. That's what championship, that team's doing. That's what Hall of Fame coaches do, they put their players in positions to be great. He did that tonight and his team came up big.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your time today.